GAUGE Data Protocol

Data management arrangements for the GAUGE programme are expected to

- Encourage dissemination of scientific results
- Protect the rights of the individual scientists
- Treat all the involved researchers equitably
- Ensure the quality of the data in the GAUGE data archive

To try to meet these aims, all named Investigators involved in GAUGE, in accordance with and on behalf of their co-workers, have agreed to abide by the following conditions as part of the acceptance of the grant award.

01. Data should be lodged with BADC on acquisition, together with such metadata as are required.
02. Data may be embargoed for up to 2 years from collection. This allows the Investigators and co-workers to exploit them in the first instance. The metadata will not be embargoed, to allow the wider community to be aware of work being carried out under GAUGE and facilitate community building.
03. FAAM core data collected for the GAUGE project will be publicly available to registered users as per the usual (upon agreement with the FAAM conditions of use)
04. FAAM non-core data other data collected for the GAUGE project will be restricted to GAUGE participants for 2 years after collection.
05. Whilst the data are restricted from the public domain, no data should be transferred to a third party without the originator's consent.
06. Whilst the data are restricted from the public domain, all investigators have the right to refuse that their work, whether measurement or calculation, be used in a publication or presentation prior to the investigators' own publication of that work.
07. Anyone making further scientific use of GAUGE data within 2 years of them being lodged at the Data Centre will be required to include the Investigators and/or co-workers (as appropriate) as co-author/s on any resulting papers, if the Investigators and/or co-workers so desire.
08. Any corrections, improvements or amendments to data must be lodged with the BADC as soon as possible.
09. Investigators making use of GAUGE data are responsible for ensuring that the data used in publications are the best available at the time.
10. Data submitted to BADC must be in the data format agreed between the Data Centre and Principal Investigator. In addition, all agreed metadata must be supplied to the Data Centre.
11. During the time when data are restricted from the public domain, no data will be transferred to parties outside the programme without the explicit agreement of the originator. This avoids compromising the interests of other programme participants.
12. Investigators and/or co-workers failing to comply with the GAUGE data policy would be subject to appropriate sanctions.